Tye Ruotolo is ready for Garry Tonon

Tye Ruotolo isn’t backing down against veteran submission artist Garry Tonon.

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialists will feature in a classic youth vs. experience submission grappling match at ONE 157: Petchmorakot vs. Vienot on May 20, which will be broadcast live from the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Tye Ruotolo, who will be making his ONE debut, said he expects that he and Tonon will waste no time looking for the best possible submission. While he expects Tonon to go full throttle the moment they get a hold of each other, Ruotolo believes that his youth and cardio will ultimately be his key advantages.

In an interview with ONE Championship, Tye Ruotolo said:

“I think as soon as we walk forwards, it’s going to be just this hurricane of crazy transitions and scrambles until I break him. That’s the only difference between Garry and me – I have better cardio, and I can adapt the ability to break people more than he does.”

The 19-year-old added that it will be in the early stages of the match that he plans on asserting his game plan and eventually getting the better of Tonon.

“It’s going to be just an absolutely fire scramble festival for the first few minutes. Five minutes to six minutes in, there’s going to be a big change in the match and I’m going to start to dominate and then break him mentally, get him tired, and submit him before the 10-minute mark.”

Tye Ruotolo doesn’t have any ill will towards Tonon

Tonon has an interesting social media footprint and one of his most recent posts featured him poking fun at Ruotolo. The 30-year-old uploaded an Instagram post that shows him choking an edited photograph of Ruotolo.

While it was a piece of trash talk, no one can deny that it was still a funny post. Ruotolo, too, doesn’t seem to have any animosity toward his older opponent.

“Garry is a funny guy, and I don’t have any ill will or ill feelings towards him at all. I called him out years ago after I fought Nicky Ryan, one of his teammates. He started to do all his MMA fights so it’s been years, and now we’re finally meeting up. It’s been a few years coming so I’m excited,” said Ruotolo.

He added:

“He’s got that super-exciting style, always going for the submission. He’s the definition of a submission hunter, a wild scramble guy, and at the same time, kind of the best at what he does. And right now, I’m ranked number one. So it should be interesting. It’s two guys that are the best.”

We'll see if either man can find the crucial tap later this week when Ruotolo and Tonon enter the circle together.